Co-defendant in prostitution case: 'I put two and two together'

Thursday

When he reconnected with his old jailhouse buddy last year, David Ronan said he didn’t know how Enoch Smith earned his money.

But he soon figured it out, he said.

The women were the dead giveaway, Ronan testified Wednesday at a preliminary hearing for Smith, who is charged with promoting prostitution in Bensalem. Smith always had women around him, Ronan said, and they would move from one motel to another.

“I put two and two together,” Ronan said.

The 37-year-old Philadelphia man — who was arrested with Smith in April — was the prosecution’s main witness. His testimony was enough for Bensalem District Judge Joseph Falcone to hold Smith for trial on all charges. Smith, 35, remains in Bucks County prison in lieu of $250,000/10 percent bail.

The Philadelphia resident is charged with five felonies related to promoting prostitution including corrupt organizations, a charge that carries a maximum 20-year prison sentence, if convicted. He also faces 10 felony drug counts, which the prosecution added Wednesday.

Before testifying, Ronan waived his preliminary hearing on similar charges. He also has been at Bucks County prison since his arrest in lieu of $250,000/10 percent bail.

The alleged pimping took place in at least five Bensalem area motels between March and April, according to police and prosecutors.

During his 30 minutes on the witness stand, Ronan, an admitted drug addict with a long criminal past, said that Smith “pimped” out six women at various times, paying them in drugs not money.

Smith, he testified, placed Internet classified ads promoting prostitution services, paid for motel rooms the women used and for the illegal drugs and drug paraphernalia.

Ronan testified that Smith also would check in during the day to see how much money the women earned. The amount of drugs the women received as payment for their services was based on how much money they made, Ronan said.

Ronan testified that he met Smith in 2003 when they were both incarcerated. They met again around October by chance on the streets of Philadelphia, he said.

At the time, Ronan had recently been released from prison and was living in a halfway house. Once he was paroled from the house, Ronan said Smith gave him some work, mostly odd jobs, he said.

“How do you know he was pimping women?” Bucks County prosecutor Jennifer Schorn asked.

“I was with him,” Ronan replied.

Smith let him tag along while the women worked in motels, he said. He stayed with Smith and the women at the motels, too, he said. He’d sometimes stand guard outside a room or inside a nearby room when a “girl” was with a customer to “make sure they didn’t get hurt,” he said.

His main job was buying heroin and crack cocaine for the women who worked for Smith, Ronan said. He used money Smith gave him to make the drug buys.

As payment, Ronan received a cut of the drugs — $20 worth of heroin a day, he said.

Bensalem police arrested Smith and Ronan after a tip about constant foot traffic at two motel rooms.

The department’s Special Investigations Unit went to the motel March 26 and knocked on the door to room 317, according to court documents. A woman answered, immediately ran to a bed and tried to hide needles and bags of heroin, according to court records.

She told them she had been prostituting at the motel for several weeks, that Smith was her pimp and that she was paid by him with heroin and crack, records show. Smith paid for the room and a cell phone, which was used to set up her “dates,” according to court documents.

Once a “date” was set, she would call Smith to alert him and then put all the money on a dresser, police said. She also said she wasn’t the only girl working for him, police said.

Later that night, the woman reportedly called police to tell them Smith was at the motel. Officers went there, knocked on the door and Smith answered wearing boxer shorts and a T-shirt and his pants around his ankles, police said.

Police said they found several hundred dollars on him. They then searched his car and found two large, brown paper bags — one containing hundreds of new needles, tin caps, distilled water, mini cotton balls and rubber tie straps and the other with hundreds of condoms, according to the court records.

Police also went to Room 303 — another room number mentioned by the tipster, where they found Ronan, who said he was a friend of Smith’s, court documents show. Police said they found used heroin needles in that room.

Court records show that Smith has a long criminal history in Philadelphia and is awaiting trial on drug and prostitution charges there.

Jo Ciavaglia: 215-949-4181;

email: jciavaglia@phillyBurbs.com; Twitter: @jociavaglia

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